Uber wants you to be able to request a car from any app you're using

So you're in a new city, scrolling through a list of restaurants and trying to find a place to eat. You can snag a reservation at the top-rated spot, but you're a couple of miles away and packing yourself into public transportation seems less appealing than having dinner straight out of the minibar. Enter Uber, which wants to make it even easier for you to request a car from any app that you might have open on your phone.

On Wednesday, Uber announced "the official Uber Ride Request Button" — yes, it used the word official in its own announcement — which will allow iOS and Android developers to add this function to their apps. As Uber wrote in a post on its Developer Blog:

"By adding the button next to every address or ‘intent to ride’ in your App, your users will be able to tap to instantly get a ride to the hotel, restaurant, movie theater or any other destination you specify. This will help you offer a differentiated feature for your users, provide a magical experience for riders and even earn additional revenue your business."

Is it that hard to exit, say, a hotel booking app and open the Uber app on your phone screen? Of course not. It's a swipe and a couple of taps. But since we all have a billion other distractions on our home screen ("I'll just see what's on Instagram and maybe Facebook and, hey, I have a new Bumble match!")  this might make it more likely for customers to commit to both the destination — whatever and wherever it is — and to using Uber to get there, even if it's a slightly less magical experience than its own copywriters have promised.

The developers themselves are being encouraged to add the button, as Uber has promised that they can earn $5 for each first-time rider that is referred through the app, and could earn up to $5,000 from those who press those newly installed Ride Request buttons. But, as TechCrunch points out, apps that add this new functionality are prohibited by Uber from including links or ride request buttons that connect to any competing car service.

"Tap a Button. Get a Ride. From any App," Uber wrote on its blog. That's exactly what it's doing — and what it hopes to keep other ridesharing services from doing too.